Aligning Objects in Adobe Illustrator

If you’re anything like me, you use the align tools in Adobe Illustrator on a daily basis. Unfortunately when you use these tools, no matter how many objects you select or the order you select them in, each object moves, making it impossible to do something as simple as centre an object within a box.

I finally figured a way around this, and it’s a game changer for me. I’m sure it’s also been there the whole time and I just didn’t notice it before. And the beauty of this tip is that it literally can’t be any simpler.

All you do is select all of the objects you want to align as you normally would. When you’re done making selections you will see the cursor change to an arrow with a selection box below it – indicating that whatever object you click next will become the Key Object. Whatever object you select next will remain stationery, becoming the Key Object – you can tell which object is the Key Object because it has a thicker border around it.

I’ve made a quick video showing exactly how this works.

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